Poland who had beaten Norway 3-0 in the UAE and drawn 0-0 away to Germany in friendly matches before the World Cup rose the most in the rankings after a great start to their Euro 2016 campaign where they thrashed newcomers Gibraltar 7-0 in Portugal and celebrated a historic 2-0 home win over newly crowned world champions Germany before smashing Georgia 4-0 in Tbilisi.

Northern Ireland picked up valiant away wins in Euro qualifiers 2-1 in Hungary and 2-0 in Greece.

Iceland put the visiting Turks 3-0 to the sword and enjoyed the same result away to Latvia before downing the Dutch 2-0 in Reykjavik.

Senegal won 2-0 in Botswana and did the double over Egypt 2-0 at home and 1-0 in Cairo to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

Guatemala reached the final of the Central American Cup in the United States and consequently qualified for the Gold Cup after defeating El Salvador 2-1 and putting 2 past Honduras without reply.

Guinea, who upset Iran 2-1 in a friendly in Tehran, held Ghana to a 1-1 draw in Morocco and trounced Togo 4-1 away from home in African qualifiers.

Rwanda held Libya to a goalless draw and cruised past them 3-0 at home before overturning a first-leg defeat against Congo in the next round to win 2-0 and beat the Congolese on penalties in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers but were disqualified for fielding an ineligible player.

Mexico began the reversal of their previous year's poor results by thumping South Korea 4-0 in the USA where they also had a 3-1 win over Ecuador. In the World Cup they held hosts Brazil to a goalless draw and reached the knockout stage after a 3-1 victory against Croatia.

Curacao took big steps in the right direction winning their Caribbean Cup 1st qualifying round group in Puerto Rica with a 2-2 draw against their group hosts before defeating Grenada 2-1 and holding French Guiana to a goalless draw. In the next round they drew 1-1 with Martinique and shocked group hosts Guadeloupe 1-0 to reach the finals.

Greece lost a friendly 2-0 at home to South Korea and were soundly beaten 3-0 by Colombia in the World Cup, but their demise accelerated in Euro qualifiers at home where they lost 1-0 to Romania and 2-0 to Northern Ireland before being stunned 1-0 by the Faroe Islands.

Honduras who lost 4-2 to Israel in a friendly in the USA finished bottom of their World Cup group after a 3-0 defeat to Switzerland and could only finish 5th in the Central American Cup after losing 1-0 to El Salvador and 2-0 to Guatemala in the group stage.

Bosnia & Herzegovina were beaten 2-0 by Egypt in a friendly in Austria and failed to advance from their World Cup group losing the decisive match 1-0 to Nigeria. In Euro qualifiers they were shocked 2-1 at home to Cyprus and taken apart 3-0 in Israel.

Burkina Faso could only manage a 1-1 draw against Comoros in a friendly in France. In the African qualifiers they lost 2-0 in Gabon and drew the return match 1-1 before drawing 1-1 at home to Angola.

Finland who lost 1-0 to Lithuania in a friendly in Latvia had poor home results in Euro qualifiers drawing 1-1 against the demising Greeks and losing 2-0 to Romania.

Libya fell at the first hurdle in the African qualifiers after drawing 0-0 at home and losing 3-0 away to Rwanda.

Azerbaijan began their Euro qualifiers with a 2-1 defeat at home to Bulgaria and were then crushed 6-0 in Croatia before losing 1-0 at home to Norway.

The biggest shock of the year was Poland's 2-0 win over world champions Germany who had earlier demolished Brazil 7-1 in the World Cup at the Maracana. Other amazing results were Bonaire's 3-2 victory over Suriname in the Caribbean Cup in Martinique and Congo's astonishing 3-2 win away to Nigeria in the African qualifiers.

The highest score of the year was Dominican Republic's 10-0 win over Anguilla in a Caribbean Cup qualifier in Antigua & Barbuda.

Two more countries joined the rankings. Gibraltar came in at 122nd and Kosovo moved into 155th place.